Recently different types of dental splinting devices and materials have become popular for stabilizing mobile or avulsed teeth. Some of these splinting materials include metal and plastic meshs, perforated metals, metal rods, bars, and the like. Our copending application, Ser. No. 282,942, describes some of these new splinting materials and the methods for applying them, the contents of which application are hereby incorporated by reference.
Problems have been experienced by dental practitioners in trying to adapt, place, handle and bond these splinting materials to tooth structure. An even greater problem arises when severe crowding of teeth exist making it difficult or impossible to place materials effectively and efficiently, and excessive time is consumed in such situations, as well as added discomfort for the patient and frustration to the dentist and his assistants.
A known placement device has been described, which is made of plastic provided with tabs and in which a slot is cut so that the placement material could be placed into the slot after application of the plastic to the teeth. This device is extremely complex in terms of fabrication of the plastic and requires careful slotting of thin plastic which is costly to manufacture. Furthermore, this prior art device requires careful placement into the slot of a strip of metal mesh which when pushed through often catches and the very fine mesh wires bend preventing the metal from being pushed through the slot. This often causes irreparable damage to the strip of metal, and great time loss to the dentist and patient. A further disadvantage of this prior art device is that the metal strip once placed through the plastic holder must be applied onto the segment of teeth to be splinted. To accomplish this, the plastic tabs must be slid along the metal strip. This often causes the metal mesh wires to catch again causing bending of the wires. Once the plastic holder is properly placed and resin bonded to the teeth, it is necessary to leave the plastic tabs in place. This is a significant disadvantage. It is impossible to remove the tabs without disturbing the embedded metal and resin.
In another dental procedure known as acid-etch bridge work or resin bonded retainer, a replacement tooth mounted on a retainer with bracket ears is placed by the dentist in the location where a tooth of the patient is missing, and the dentist holds the bracket ears against adjacent teeth while the bracket ears are bonded thereto. A problem is the difficulty of holding the small replacement tooth by hand or instruments while evenly applying pressure of the brackets against the tooth structure during hardening of the bonding material. Moreover, there is always concern about accidental dropping of the retainer and aspiration by the patient.